The new slave trade-human trafficking in Libya is being carried out by
many nationalities, including Nigerians and Ghanaians, according to a
Cameroonian returnee, who was abducted in the country.
Foka Fotsi, who was trafficked twice, told Reuters that those in charge
of one of the places where he was held included Ghanaians and
Nigerians. Fotsi story corroborated another testimony by a Nigerian in
the southern state of Edo, who identified one Charles, a Nigerian as the
trafficking kingpin.
Unable to find work to support his family, Fotsi decided to leave
Cameroon last year, but fell into the hands of a Libyan kidnap ring
before reaching Europe.
“There was torture like I’ve never seen. They hit you with wooden bats,
with iron bars,” he said, removing the hood of his sweatshirt and
showing the still raw red wounds on his skull.
“They hang you from the ceiling by (your) arms and legs and then throw
you down to the floor. They swing you and throw you against the wall,
over and over again, ten times.
“They are not human beings. They are the devil personified.”
Christelle Timdi, another Cameroonian recounted her horrendous experience in the north African country.
When uniformed men boarded the overloaded rubber dingy carrying her and
her boyfriend to a new life in Europe, she thought the Italian
coastguard had come to rescue them.
But the men took out guns and began to shoot. “Many people fell in the
sea,” the 32-year-old Cameroonian said as she described seeing her
boyfriend, Douglas, falling in the water and disappearing into the
darkness.
The gunmen took Timdi and her fellow passengers back to Libya where they
were locked up, raped, beaten and forced to make calls to their
families back home for ransom payments to secure their freedom.
Timdi, who flew back to Cameroon last week, told her story as
international outcry escalated over a video which appeared to show
African migrants being traded as slaves in Libya.
Libya’s U.N.-backed government has said it is investigating and has promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Timdi said she had not seen the footage broadcast by CNN, but had witnessed the trade in humans while in Libya.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” she said, describing how she had seen a Senegalese man buying an African migrant.
Libya is the main jumping off point for migrants trying to reach Europe by boat.
Timdi said many traffickers posed as marine guards, police officers and taxi drivers to ensnare victims.
There were around 130 other migrants on her boat when the gunmen opened fire in the middle of the night, Timdi said.
After being taken back to Libya they were locked in an abandoned factory
building where men would grab and rape the girls and women – and
sometimes even the men.
“We tried to hide the younger girls among us,” Timdi said, describing
the terrifying moments when the guards would scour the room with
torches, searching for their next victims.
“I was heavily pregnant – that’s why I wasn’t raped. And it’s all done
in front of others – they say it’s so that you know what will happen to
you if you don’t pay up.”
Timdi said the facilities used by traffickers appeared to be well
organised and guarded, adding that most people inside wore fake police
or military uniforms.
“The place was surrounded by army-style vehicles with guns ready to fire, so we didn’t dare try and escape.”
Timdi’s family paid 1 million CFA francs ($1,800), frantically collected
from relatives and friends, to free her. But she said ransoms were no
guarantee of safety.
The traffickers work with a network of taxi drivers who are supposed to
transfer released migrants to migrant camps – but who often re-traffick
them, Timdi said.
“If they send you a good taxi, you’ll arrive at your destination, but if
it’s a bad taxi the driver will sell you on to someone else,” she said.
“There are people who have been resold twice, three times. And when you
call your family to tell them that you’ve been resold once again, no one
will believe you, they won’t send more money to free you.”
Timdi was released by her captors in October and gave birth to a baby girl, Brittanie, in a Libyan hospital just days later.
Timdi and Fotsi were among 250 Cameroonians who were flown home this
week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as part of a
voluntary return scheme for migrants stranded in Libya.
clothing and medical checks. The most vulnerable, including pregnant
women, also received around 400 euros ($475).
help migrants set up businesses, and will also provide start-up funding.